Bessemer City Schools Superintendent Dr. Dana Arreola reported that enrollment is at about 60%. She urged the remaining 40% of students who have not yet registered to do so.
“If you have not made your way to one of our campuses to register, we ask that you please return, because our students are very much missed at this point if they have not returned to school, and we’re just excited for them to walk across that threshold and jump right into learning,” says Arreola.
Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Dr. Mark Sullivan stated that this school year has seen more students attending during the first week compared to last year.
“We were about 500 students higher yesterday than we were on day 6 last year. So we had around 18,600 students this year we had about 18,034-35 last year so we’re over 500 students than where we were last year,” adds Sullivan.
He expressed concern for those who have not yet registered, especially given the difficulties some students may face in getting to school or experiencing homelessness.
To address these issues, the school has partnered with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office and has implemented the “Everyday Counts” initiative in collaboration with the Birmingham Housing Authority. The initiative rewards students with perfect attendance with a chance to win money towards their housing expenses in a monthly raffle.
“We’ve still got some students out there that haven’t shown up for school yet and we really want to make sure that parents understand that you don’t want to waste kids being out of school at the beginning of the school year because you never know what can happen,” says Sullivan.
Sullivan emphasized the importance of getting students enrolled and attending school, highlighting the impact that attendance and enrollment have on the funding that school systems receive. He stressed that missing school not only affects a child’s learning but also has financial implications for the schools.
